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Prehistoric playground

09-29-2008 | Family

By Cole Cheney

Meat eaters, go with the Tyrannosaurus Rex. For salad lovers, the Triceratops should do. The name of the game is to survive the Cretaceous period.

Removing the exhibit glass and inserting virtual reality, the Cedar Rapids Science Station will open “Be the Dinosaur,” its first post-flood exhibit, on Wednesday at the Lindale Mall, 4444 First Ave. NE. Admission to the exhibit, which runs through Dec. 31, is $5 for children and $6 for adults.

“Museums can’t be ‘look and don’t touch’ anymore,” says John Swanson, the Science Station’s executive director. “Today’s audiences want interaction. ‘Dinosaurs’ has it.”

Interactive, in this case, means museum attendees select their dinosaur of choice on computer simulators before plunging into a world of moving, foraging and observing. Users guide their dinosaur around a bionetwork of ancient plants, landscapes and other now-extinct reptiles amid the threat of predators. While observers enjoy the computer interaction, they may notice a lack of familiar faces: humans did not make their prehistoric debut until tens of millions of years after the Cretaceous period.

But just like a human existence, the goal for the exhibit’s dinosaur is anti-climatic: there is no “winning,” Swanson says, only “not dying.”

“I shy away from the word ‘game’ for the display,” Swanson says. “There are no points to win and the entire program is historically and scientifically accurate.”

Comprised of 13 “simulator pods,” life-size dinosaur skulls and a fossil lab, the originally New Jersey-based exhibit was bound for a museum convention until the exhibit’s creator, Eureka Exhibits, heard about the Cedar Rapids flooding and redirected the exhibit to the Science Station for shipping and insurance costs only, Swanson says.

To complement the display, the Science Station has scheduled five consecutive Sunday discussions on dinosaurs starting Oct. 12 at the lower level of the Lindale Mall. Presentations will include “Under the feet of T. Rex,” “Sharp Teeth and Claws in the Age of Dinosaurs,” and “Track ‘em down and Dig ‘em Up” by retired Cedar Rapids science teacher William Desmarais.

Shying away from statue-esque taxidermy and ushering in engaging technology, the Science Station isn’t alone in its attempt to please an increasingly action-hungry audience.

“Our philosophy is that some people really learn from interactivity,” says Sally Dix, vice president of communication for the Science Center of Iowa in Des Moines.

Another crowd pleaser seems to be the entire topic of dinosaurs.

“We just hosted a dinosaur exhibit and were very pleased with our turnout,” Dix says.

The dinosaur exhibit may provide a much-needed boost to the recently washed out Science Station. The June flooding not only damaged the museum, it also exposed surrounding earth that covered a prehistoric history.

“My understanding is that the Iowa River flooding revealed some ancient fossils and footprints in the area that could have belonged to dinosaurs,” Swanson says. “Then again, there were dinosaurs just about everywhere millions of years ago. That’s why children and seniors alike can find this stuff interesting.”